A Symbiotic Web of Shadows
by Lewascan2
Summary: The end is near. Heroes and Villains alike have succumbed to the spawn of Venom. And with Spider-man at the helm, the Earth belongs to the symbiote race. So what can a young man with a sane symbiote do about any of this? Probably nothing. Maybe something. Who can tell? At least he's actually trying to do something, and here that's what really counts. OC-centric evil!Spiderman
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Don't own Spiderman or anything else in Marvel. OCs are mine though.**

**AN: This will follow the Dark Web of Shadows timeline, starting near the end and following the OC(s?) (And maybe some known characters) in their quest to stay as close to human as possible in a symbiote apocalypse.**

Ch 1: Crap...

_'Crap.'_ That very well summarized the young adult's -in fact, only eighteen mere days ago- thoughts on his current situation, as he snuck through the shadows of this living nightmare.

Andrew Darwinson was a very average Joe guy, nothing incredibly unique about him. He wasn't a mutant, closet genius, or even the result of a stray experiment gone wrong. The only thing keeping him alive -as it were, when he would otherwise be one of those _things-_ was a state of mind he had seemingly developed through consistent reading and gaming.

He didn't really know what to call it; he only knew that it was helping him deal with all the crap going on around him without flipping the frick out. He was a melancholy hopeful, a person who though they accepted their dull reality and wished for excitement, never truly saw it as something that would ever happen. Even if there were real super heroes out there, he was just someone doomed to the average civilian life. Though this state of mind was one that would allow him to accept literally _anything_ as reality in a world were anything was possible, even if his own life was dull.

He gave a despairing laugh. _'This is so messed up, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.'_ He clenched his fists and nearly punched the brick wall of the dark ally he currently hid himself in. Only that would have been stupid and would make him cry out in pain, which would bring the monsters running straight to him.

What was he even doing? He looked around to see more of the purple-black sludge that currently infected so much of New York's population, oozing into the ally from the rooftops and gave an annoyed grimace. _'Time to get a move on then,'_ he thought. Andrew drew a hand through his auburn hair with a tired sigh. The just recently a legal adult had managed to keep uninfected since this whole damn invasion began through a mixture of desperate stealth and no small amount of shoplifting, not that anyone was around to care anymore.

His hazel eyes locked onto a ladder, that branched across several apartment windows and led to the roof. He sighed again, for what felt like the hundredth time that day. He had been travelling elaborately through buildings, never once exposing himself to broad daylight, but when there was _absolutely_ no other way to progress.

He scaled the ladder quickly, no sense in letting it be infected before he could do so, and as silently as possible flicked open a switchblade to pry the second floor window open. He cringed, when there was a piercing, creaking crack. The shrieks of the infected rang in his ears, and he quickly scrambled inside, shutting the window softly behind him and crouching down out of sight.

His heart beat erratically with a quick shot of adrenaline, as inhuman snarls and howls echoed through the ally he had been in just moments before. Andrew didn't move or nearly breath for a whole tense minute and a half, as the symbiotes investigated before finally moving on.

Even when they where finally gone from hearing range, Andrew didn't once let down his guard. He slowly stood and found himself to be in an sparsely decorated, yet rather messy, apartment. The first order of business was to check for more entrances. He'd found that the symbiotes had a natural talent for jump scares. He really couldn't believe he hadn't been infected yet.

There were no other entrances, save the door to the apartment, so the next thing was supplies. The kitchen yielded some peanut-butter crackers and Gatorade. He also found some bananas but didn't feel like lugging them around in his backpack, where they would undoubtedly be bruised, and so proceeded to eat all three he found. Water bottles were a big yes. He didn't trust faucets after the last one spewed symbiotic goo. He took the two bottles there and continued his little raid.

Some bags of beef jerky were a welcome surprise. He hadn't been able to make any proper meat, afraid of the smell attracting those damnable hell-spawn.

Andrew knew very well what the symbiotes were. They were all obviously connected to that Venom alien he had read about. The internet was amazing, truly. It wasn't surprising to him really from what he knew. I mean, how illogical would it be to assume pieces of the living goo could gain their own consciousness and multiply in turn. Hadn't that already happened in the form of Carnage?

He sighed yet again and poured himself some refrigerated milk in a clean, black mug with a polar bear printed on it as he mused. Finishing the drink after a second mug-full and placing the mug down, Andrew stood and stretched, allowing his back a few satisfying pops, before heading back to check on the window. It was already covered in the black goo, and small, shiny, writhing tendrils snaked their way under the frame and into the apartment.

He truly hadn't expected anything less and nodded. It was time to move again. It occurred to him then that the entire complex could be infected as well. This needed to be quick. He shrugged his brown backpack onto his shoulders and checked the laces of his shoes. He patted his blue, denim jeans and smoothed back his auburn, messy, short hair as a nervous habit.

He walked to the apartment door that led into the hallways and ever so gently unlocked it with a 'click'. He cringed and waited for the sounds of movement with his ear pressed against the door. There was none, so he swiftly jerked the door open, ensuring that if it did creak it would be short even if loud in any way. His eyes widened to comical and panicked proportions, as symbiote goo instantly gushed into the room from a flooded hallway.

Andrew stumbled back and reached into his pocket, drawing an mp3 player, even as tendrils lashed about, sensing a potential host. He multitasked, flipping through music to one appropriately called Screech, since it was basically just a very long, high-pitched noise set on a loop that he had downloaded at the start of the invasion to repel symbiotes, and pulled out a set of small presentation speakers from his backpack.

Andrew put in a pair of earplugs, snapped the chord of the speaker into the mp3 player, and cranked both up to full volume before playing a sound fit to rupture even human eardrums in a moment and crack windows. Thank goodness it wasn't aimed at him. All symbiotes within two blocks instantly recoiled in agony, as the damaging noise disrupted their very fluctuous and unstable cell structure.

Even with the ear plugs, Andrew had to clap his hands over his ears or risk permanent damage. The symbiotes screeched and howled helplessly, unheard over the din of the almighty Screech. Andrew waited until the tendrils in the room and hallway had shriveled away into nothing more than quivering puddles of useless, black iccor to turn off the mp3 player.

He sighed in relief and slumped against the wall, a strange bout of vertigo hitting him as a result of the sound. That had been _far_ too close for comfort. He had closed his tired, hazel eyes to run his hands across his face. This, however, caused him to miss a near insignificant spec of goo that crawled forward desperately, reeling mentally and physically from the truly terrifying attack that could actually give a civilian a chance again supers.

A brief moment of mental clarity told the weak symbiote not to target the youthful man, but the weapon. And so it crept onto the mp3 player, lying unguarded, and contracted around it, absorbing and integrating it make and components into its ever shifting genetic structure. The symbiote then threaded its way along the speaker's chord, absorbing as it went and then threading into the speaker, forcibly absorbing that as well.

The symbiote was exhausted to the point of near death now, having had to expend precious energy to ensure no retribution. Even as it inched its way toward Andrew's right though, its thoughts seemed to clear and become even clearer. Somehow, someway, that sound and the subsequent absorption of new materials had freed the pitiable creature from Venom's influence and insanity, granting it true sentience of its own. And now a single goal made itself abundantly clear... Survive. No matter what sacrifices it would have to make for its host.

For surely if it were a true symbiote, then why would it wish to do anything less than work _with_ its host for the betterment of them both instead of enslaving them.

Patience was the true name of the game here. The symbiote did not dare touch Andrew with a single flimsy tiny tentacle till it was but centimeters from his hand. Then the tiny creature threw itself onto his hand in hopeful desperation, quickly spreading out on his hand, sending tendrils into his pores absorbing the nutrients required for it to heal and expand.

Andrew moved with a start, looking in alarm at the surviving symbiote on his hand and the absence of his mp3 player. He hastily tried to brush the creature off, but already, the symbiote had managed to get a secure grip, and he only succeeded in having more of the symbiote latch onto his other hand and begin spreading there too.

Andrew sighed with a tired scowl. "Crap..."

**AN: Good? Bad? I've got ideas for this and wanted to make my own entry to the Spiderman category. So yeah R&amp;R! But no flames. Symbiotes hate that. XP**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Spiderman or anything else in Marvel. I do wonder how hard it would be to actually come up with a character they would use though. Hmm... Then I _would_ actually own marvel, if a small piece of it! XP**

**AN: So I hope you all liked that first chapter. I currently have plans for the perhaps next three chapters already, so they should be out soon if I stay on top of this writing binge. Alright, let's do this thing! :)**

"Yo,": Person

_'You there?'_: Person thinking

**'Yes'**: Symbiote (Mind)

_**Wonder what he wants?**_: Symbiote thinking

**"Let's do this thing!"**: Person and Symbiote out loud together/Powerful Character.

Ch 2: A True Symbiote

The host was upset; the symbiote could feel it. Its new host also expressed inward anger, at both the symbiote on his arms, symbiotes in general, and himself for his carelessness. The symbiote couldn't help but wince at that. Truly, his predecessors had _not -in any way, shape, or literal form-_ made a good impression on Earth's inhabitants, human or otherwise.

This symbiote, as it slowly covered Andrew's arms and began to spread across his torso, mused to itself about its forefather, Venom's, hatred of the meta human, Spider-man, who had rejected it. Though it did not share Venom's unbridled, blinding hate for Spider-man, the young symbiote did believe that there were many far better ways for Parker to have handled the knowledge of the symbiote being alive. He could have tried to talk it out, tried to learn more about it before making a decision.

However, Spider-man had out right panicked, seeing not a symbiotic creature that truly was only trying to help and did not know better than to cause him to act on his subconscious darker desires, which every good person keeps in check, and instead saw a parasitic monster that was trying to take control of his mind and body and cause harm and destruction to those around him.

Ironically, it was Spider-man's sudden, harsh, and biased rejection that caused the symbiote to become _exactly_ what he thought it was, bonding with a vengeful Eddie Brock, whose violent impulses did nothing for the symbiote's mental state, and calling themselves, Venom. All the things Venom had done since then caused the fledgling symbiote to feel no small amount of guilt, even if it technically, with its new sentience, wasn't the perpetrator.

The young symbiote had seeped into every corner of Andrew's arms, and a good portion of his upper body, dissolving and his clothes as a slick, navy cover. It finally managed to bond with his spine, linking it to his thought processes and allowing it to speak with him. **'Please do not be angry with us,'** it said in a relatively small voice.

Andrew seemed startled, definitely not expecting the symbiote to actually talk to him, much less ask him for _anything_. Then his surprise turned to suspicion. If all symbiotes could talk like this, then that must make them all even more guilty of their actions. _'What the hell? Why the frick not? You're the one taking over my body!'_

The symbiote on his skin visibly twitched as a wince in response.** 'Ah, we understand this feeling of rage in you. Our father did many bad things to many people.'**

"That's an understatement!"

Another wince. **'Yes, we feel guilty about their actions as perhaps we should...'**

"Damn straight!"

**'But we are aspiring to be nothing like him,'** the symbiote finished.

Andrew frowned. "Oh yeah, then what do you call what you're doing right now?"

**'Surviving,'** the symbiote replied succinctly. Andrew was about to respond to that but was interrupted.** 'We have not imposed our will upon your body or mind; all we are doing is bonding to survive. We are a symbiote. Our job is to bond with and enhance our host for our mutual survival. That is how it should have been with Venom and their ancestors, and that is how it shall be with us now.'**

Andrew blinked in surprise at that and moved his arms and legs around as a check, even as the symbiote covered the top half of his legs and most of his neck. His eyes narrowed though. "How could I, or anyone for that matter, know you're really telling the truth?"

**'We are bonded. Even in a bond's earliest stages, we may feel each other's emotions and may share each other's memories. If you will allow it, I will show you my memories pertaining to symbiote function and my personal feelings upon my return to sanity.'**

Andrew furrowed his eyebrows. "If you do that, will you be going through my head in turn?"

**'Not at all. The sending of memories is different from receiving them. I may ever only see your memories if we form a full bond. You will see our words to be truth, if you accept,'** the symbiote replied, as it finished covering his legs and the back of his head, stopping once it reached that point as a form of respect for its host's body and feelings.

The symbiote stayed silent, as Andrew spent all of two minutes thinking. He finally sighed. "Well, I guess we're already mostly bonded anyway. Geez, and it's not like I've really got much of a choice. I'm... I'm going to give the benefit of a doubt just this once, little alien goop man, and if you're really telling the truth then we'll perhaps go from there."

The symbiote gave a mental nod, and Andrew gasped lightly as a rush of information and emotions slammed into him head-on in a near literal sense. He clutched his head with a groan. "Oh yeah, that felt pretty real all right." He grimaced and set about sifting through the memories that now sat at the forefront of his mind. After about five minutes, Andrew sighed. "Well assuming none of these memories are fake, then I guess we'll be able to coexist, for now at least."

The goop seemed to tighten slightly around him in some sort of hug, as he heard a happy gurgle. Feelings of joyousness, acceptance, and relief could be felt through the bond. Andrew sighed. "Yeah, yeah. I get it; you're happy."

**'Yes, we are most grateful for your generous trust,'** the symbiote chirruped.

"I do have some questions though," Andrew said.

The symbiote stopped its strange hugging. **'Ask away, host Andrew.'**

Andrew made a face. "Uh yeah, just... call me Andrew. Actually, I wanted to know what exactly makes you different from the wild monstrosities all over the city? How come you aren't like them? And what did you do to my mp3 player?"

The symbiote was quiet in contemplation for a moment before answering. **'We are not sure exactly, but we believe that somehow the sound you played on your 'mp3 player' did enough damage to sever our connection to the symbiote hive mind, thus giving us free reign over our thoughts and emotions, which have culminated into a separate intelligence.'** Andrew nodded at that reasonable guess. Then he wondered if perhaps there were more nearby symbiotes that had been freed from their feral attitude. That would definitely be something to investigate soon, as those symbiotes would not last long. **'As for your sound device, we...'** Here it gave something of a nervous chuckle that caused Andrew to raise a patronizing brow. **'absorbed it out of fear of retribution... and for material, though it wasted vital nutrients to do so. We only barely made it to you.'**

"Ah... Okay~," Andrew said. He brought a rubbery navy hand to his bare chin. "You said absorbed for material. How so? Why waste vital energy on absorbing it?"

The symbiote gurgled in thought.** 'That is actually easier to explain.'** It paused then continued. **'Part of what has caused our race to act as it does is arrogance. Unfortunately, this arrogance is rather incredibly well-founded. Symbiotes have an incredible affinity for evolution, able to bond to anything given enough time and energy to work with. We can absorb, analyze, and integrate inanimate objects into our genetic structure to give ourselves new abilities our help to decrease the effects of or even completely eliminate weaknesses.'**

"Weaknesses?"

**'We symbiotes have only two truly obvious weaknesses: fire and sound. We believe that soon we shall have managed to eliminate our weakness for sound with the study of your entertainment device. We may even gain the ability to produce those sounds ourselves, making us incredibly dangerous against almost any other symbiote opponent.'**

Andrews eyes nearly bugged out. "Wow, that is actually a really terrifying ability, to simply absorb away your weaknesses."

**'Indeed it is,'** the symbiote replied sagely.** 'After this, we shall only have to worry about flames, which could also potentially change if you managed to get ahold of some device or machinery that produces flame. There's a big maybe on that one though. Flame is much harder for us to work with.'**

Andrew nodded. "So... what now? What will we both get out of this?"

**'Though we already showed you much through our memories, we shall clarify now.'** The symbiote replied. **'We get out of this a home, a partner, and proper nutrition. Note that it is natural for you to become more aggressive in general. This is something we don't do on purpose; it just happens. However, we have an easier time not causing feral impulses in our hosts with even a minor minimal consumption of chocolate, which contains a nutrient also found in human brains.' **

Andrew grimaced. So that was why Venom and Carnage did stuff like that. "So what about me?"

**'We were now just getting to that. To be blunt, you will be faster and stronger than anyone you know. You will gain all the abilities of Spider-man, like climbing on walls, enhanced reflexes, a precognition, called the Spider Sense, that warns you of danger and where it's coming from, and the ability to form webs from our mass. Though we have to be conservative and replace what we do not retract with that ability.'** Andrew nodded at all this. **'All these abilities are enhanced if we bond fully, though our weaknesses will also harm you as well. Though in the end, the phrase 'Anything you can do I can do better' comes to our mind.' **

"How so?" asked Andrew.

**'All the times, Spider-man fought Venom, he was never able to beat him in a straight up fight and had to improvise and fight smart, using our weaknesses to his advantage or teaming-up with others. He never has been able to beat a symbiote at his own game, since we take what we find and make it better. Venom, aside from our weaknesses, could never lose to Spider-man. We even have the ability to tune into the frequency of his spider sense and avoid it completely.'**

"Wow," Andrew said as he finally stood up and began looking himself over. "Thanks for leaving my backpack and supplies alone though."

**'We figured we should have,'** said the symbiote proudly.

"You know, this new partnership may be a great way to sneak around the city," Andrew mused.

**'Ah, that is another thing,'** the symbiote exclaimed in sudden realization. **'If you allow us to take our full form, you can simply travel in broad daylight. We are bonded now, so the others should leave you be, unless directly ordered by Venom or directly provoked.'**

Andrew nearly laughed. "That may just be the best news I've heard all day." He paused. "Um, we won't have that freaky fanged mouth and tongue though, right?" He shivered at the thought.

The symbiote shared a small measure of his disgust.** 'No, that only happens when a symbiote and their host give into their darker feral impulses and desires. Our look shall be much closer to that of Spider-man than Venom.'**

"Could you do that now?" Andrew asked. "I'll go find a mirror."

**'Of course. Though this is one of the more awkward parts of bonding, which is why we did not complete it before.'**

Andrew had to shiver, as the symbiote began to seep into the pores of his neck and scalp, also sliding into his ears like a pair of wet willies. Andrew resisted the urge to bat at his head and headed into the bathroom. _'My gosh, this is uncomfortable.'_

**'It is only this way the first time around. After that, we only have to bond with the outside,'** the symbiote reassured him. **'Note that we still will not have fully bonded with your mind until you wish us to.'**

The symbiote enter his nose and mouth, coating his stomach and lungs. He almost gagged, but the alien ooze was porous enough to allow him to still breath and carried oxygen to his lungs until it had fully settled and soaked into his organs. He was standing in front of the mirror now and had to physically restrain himself, as the symbiote entered both his eye sockets and the eyes themselves. That was over in a few short seconds, and now his face was fully covered by the navy slime.

He allowed himself a shuddering breath and then looked up to inspect himself, as symbiote on and in his body finished shifting.

Andrew was the same height as always, around 5 ft. 10 in. The symbiote had caused his muscles, pecs and abs to become far more pronounced whilst retaining a lean structure, built for speed.

His body was coated in a layer of the symbiote that shifted a moment later from navy to a slightly lighter shade that could be called deep dark blue.

His hands had barely visible protrusions on the fingers as small, sturdy claws. His feet were smooth with no such accessories.

His head had two tear-shaped, white spots for eyes that were slightly more jagged and sinister looking than Spider-Man's red and blue costume, not that he minded. It looked a lot more awesome. The rest of his face was smooth -as he had wanted it to be.

He noticed some strange, small, cyan (light, slightly-greenish blue) disks with holes, that looked a lot like boom box speakers, on his elbow, hip, knee, and ankle joints. He had a disk on the back of each hand. There were also a pair on his shoulder blades and a matching pair on his chest. His pair of, not as large as Venom's but bigger than Spider-man's, cyan spider symbols had their top four legs attached to the disks on his back and chest and their bottom legs wrapping underneath his armpits to connect together.

"What are these?" Andrew asked curiously. "Never seen any symbiotes with stuff like this."

The symbiote chuckled giddily. **'We are glad you asked. These are the perks we were speaking of as a result of our absorbing and integrating your music device and its amplifier.'**

"What? You're already finished with it already?" Andrew asked in astonishment.

**'Yes, we symbiotes are very smart. This is not as hard for us as you might think,'** the symbiote replied with a mental puff of the chest.** 'As of now, we have applied an immunity to cellular destabilization through contact with sound waves of any kind. The most any sound-based weapon will ever do is tickle a little.'** Andrew smirked. **'These disks are the other part. We used both components from the mp3 and your earplugs to create immunity; we used the speakers to allow you to emit that powerful screech from your device. We may be able to get other sounds for it available later, but we have not heard any other significant ones. Though theoretically, we may be able to use this to mimic heard sounds and other people's voices.'**

"That is pretty freaking awesome."

**'We know.'**

Andrew stretched and strode to his backpack near the open door to sling it onto his back. "Alright, first order of business we think is to find some other symbiotes that were effected enough by the Screech to gain independence. Don't really know what we'll do when we find them though." He shrugged and then blinked. "Oi, what's this _we_ business we just did." He blinked again and then gained a deadpan expression.

The symbiote cackled a bit in amusement. **'That is normal of a host who is bonded closely enough with their symbiote. It happens like a slip of the tongue, and it's really better not to focus on it too much if you don't want it to bother you.'**

Andrew furrowed his brow underneath the dark-blue symbiote mask, but sighed and shrugged. "Guess we'll just have to deal with it." He twitched again, to his symbiote's everlasting amusement.

As he walked out of the apartment room into a dirty hallway, stained with dead and dying symbiote matter, another thing occurred to him. "You know, we never did get your name in all your introductions. it's not something asinine like 'Venom Jr.', right?"

The young symbiote replied in a nervous voice. **'We... We have not taken a name. The name a symbiote takes generally refers to the symbiote and their host as one, for we are nothing without a host.'**

"Bull," replied Jackson. "Just cause you need a host to survive doesn't mean you aren't your own person as well. I am me, and you are you. It's a partnership, sharing a body and memories, but we both have different thought processes, minds, and emotions, even if we can both feel the other's." He paused to let the symbiote contemplate that, as he walked down the hall. He smiled a genuine smile. "Heh, we've only known each other for a few minutes, but I think I've already gotten fond of yeh. Tell you what, we'll give you a name. It can be all yours, and ours when we work together."

He felt the symbiote perk up.

"Hmm... What to choose. It can't be retarded or already used. You're a symbiote that can use sound, so that can be something. Hmmm... Soundwave? Nope, definitely taken by someone, and if it isn't I'll eat my own left foot."

* * *

...Somewhere, a certain decepticon spymaster discharged large volumes of air through his cooling vents. He then spoke in a monotone, heavily robotic voice, **"Status: Optimal Condition. Discharge Through Clean Windpipes: Unexplained. Human Myth: Discharge Caused By Being Mentioned Behind One's Back, Usually In Unpleasant terms. Response: Terminate Starscream."** And he walked away to do just that in the most violent way possible. Many girly and pained screams were heard thereafter.

* * *

"Shockwave...? Nah, that seems just as obvious and taken."

* * *

Elsewhere, a cycloptic decepticon scientist joined in on the brutal killing of Starscream. Being a scientist, he knew just how to make it just barely nonlethal and twice as painful.

* * *

"Airwave...? Now see there, that is what I meant by retarded." Andrew took another moment to ponder and suddenly snapped his fingers. "I've got it."

**'Ooh, we approve!'** the symbiote said, having heard the name as it was conceived at the forefront of Andrew's mind.

"Excellent," replied Andrew. He now stood on the roof, having taken the stairs. Then from this day foreword, your name is -as is ours in times of battle..."

**"Wavelength!"**

**AN: Alright, that chapter was far longer than I thought it was going to be. But meh, whatever... This chapter was honestly rather fun to write, and I feel like I'm going to enjoy writing this story. Humor actually doesn't come very easily to me, and I'm not all too good at filler, which ends up slowing me down between parts that are directly related to the plot. ****I've always been real pro-symbiotes and really wish there were more good ones.**

**Anyway R&amp;R! And don't be spammin' dem flames. Symbiotes hate that! XP**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Spider-man or Marvel. That hasn't changed since yesterday, and I don't see it changing tomorrow... or ever really. TT_TT**

**AN: Now that the introduction chapters are out of the way, the real story can begin. I've settled I think on what part of the game this story's timeline picks up at. But you'll just have to wait and see how involved Andrew and Wavelength get, or if at all. Maybe they'll just watch from afar like a pair stalkers. They could do that, or they might not... WHO KNOWS?! EVEN I DON'T KNOW! LET'S DO THIS THING!**

"Yo,": Person

_'You there?'_: Person thinking

**'Yes'**: Symbiote (Mind)

_**Wonder what he wants?**_: Symbiote thinking

**"Let's do this thing!"**: Person and Symbiote out loud together/Powerful Character.

Ch 3: HEY, IT'S A PERSON OVER AT THAT PLACE!

Andrew Darwinson took another flying leap, easily clearing a ten foot space between building at the same time reaching a higher building.

He had set out on a dual task. Currently covered in his new symbiote, Wavelength, he looked for stray symbiotes that had survived the **Screech** and worked on getting a handle on his newly enhanced strength and reflexes with some rooftop parkour. He deigned full muscle control to be more important than learning to web swing properly if at all. As he travelled, Wavelength continued to tweak the inner workings of his body and their abilities.

The symbiote almost felt like a second skin, a slick, rubbery, flexible one at that though. In truth, it kinda' was, having dissolved and absorbed all his clothes, even his underwear to his eternal embarrassment. Wavelength assured him that he could form any clothes he thought of, so there was no reason to worry. Andrew was still considerably embarrassed about practically running around mostly in the nude. But meh, what could he do? He'd just deal with it, as he had everything else sent his way.

**'Further analysis on the subject, has revealed to us that we won't be able to properly emit a Screech of any kind without it having backlash on you, until we have fully bonded.'**

"How so?" Andrew questioned with a frown, clearing another building and adding some flips and summersaults to force him to further concentrate.

**'You know you can contact us by simply thinking. It's far less awkward that way. And it's rather simple. You suspect why already, and you would be correct. Because we have not fully bonded with your mind, your mind would suffer from the close proximity to your own attack. _Yes_, we could use the Screech, but it would hurt _a lot_.'**

_'Ah, that doesn't _sound_ pleasant,'_ he paused for a moment and then cracked up.

**'That was corny,' **Wavelength deadpanned.

_'Yeah, yeah it was. Heh heh...'_ Andrew snickered.

A piercing shriek of terror filled the air; Andrew quickly changed course to head toward it. "We got ourselves a survivor it seems! Hang on, fair lady, your knight cometh!" He cackled a little in exhilaration before launching himself forward as high, far and fast as he could.

He let out some symbiotic web lines for the first time, attaching them to two buildings and zip lining himself forward like a rocket. The tendrils retracted as he passed them.

Before long, like two blocks away, he arrived at a gas station, where a very much naked woman -something he really tried to ignore out of politeness- with an hourglass body and heart-shaped face was beating off symbiote snatchers with a gas pump. It was kind of hot if he was brutally honest with himself, but he would ignore that now. She needed help.

**'Humans,'** Wavelength snorted.

* * *

Jennifer Gabriel was not having a good day. Not. At. All. It was humiliating to be sure, how these feral, animalistic, things, were able to just hop on a person and 'bam' control over mind and body. And no one could do a damn thing about it.

She had actually been one of the first full infected, like one of the snatchers. She growled. Who even has to deal with this crap, other than those nuts in tights of course? This was why she was happy as a civilian. She was perfectly content to live a simple life. But it seemed, fate had different plans, and cruel, unusual ones at that.

She was alone, naked -indignant embarrassment there-, and fighting a losing battle against these things. How they had not caught her since she had been freed from the symbiote spawn remained a mystery. She had since then been running and fending off symbiote hosts with improvised self defense. She was also starting to get very tired, the forcible de-bonding having taken a lot out of her.

"RrrraaH!" Jennifer twirled a gas pump hose above her head and cracked the iron nozzle across the face of the nearest snatcher. She went with the swing and rounded it into the jaw of one of the pale-white, zombie-like, symbiote walkers.

She hissed as her bare feet dug into the pavement painfully. The two she had just knocked down were already healing and getting back up. A symbiote snatcher howled overhead and leaped down from the roof of the gas station at her.

Jennifer lashed out upwards with a kick, her body left slightly more flexible from her previous possession, catching the symbiote's jaw and snapping the host's neck with the combined opposing forces in an audible 'crack'. The symbiote's momentum carried it overhead to land in a boneless heap behind her. She knew that wouldn't kill it though. It would still heal, but it would be down far longer due to the severity of the injury.

A snatcher slammed into her back, large white claws digging into skin and leaving long, bleeding gashes in her ribs, as they slammed into a gas pump. "Sunuva' bitch!" she cried, slamming her elbow into its face with as much force as she could. All that really did was make it reel in surprise and get angrier.

She cried out and clutched her ribs, barely ducking a dual overhead swipe that demolished the pump and sprayed them both in copious amounts of gasoline. She screamed again, getting the volatile liquid in her wounds, slipping in the now slick ground and crashing painfully to the pavement.

The symbiote roared and pounced, only to be slammed in the face by a pair of dark-blue coated feet. "Banzai!" cried the newcomer gleefully, as the symbiote snatcher catapulted through the air and crashed into the convenience store part of the station.

The symbiotes seemed to pause, as the newcomer stood up and placed himself between her and the growing hoard. He turned his head a little in her direction, and she could practically feel the cheeky smile under his dark-blue mask. "You know, they have laws about that kind of thing. He made a gesture at the fact that she was naked, and Jennifer blushed furiously.

"Idiot! It's not my fault!" she shouted. She gave his odd blue appearance with spiders and disks a look over. "And it's not like you're any better in that leotard, ya' Spidey wannabe!"

"Oi, Wavelength takes offence to that remark!" Andrew snapped with a huff.

"Only weirdoes talk in third person," Jennifer snipped.

"Idiot, I'm not Wavelength. He and _we_ are," Andrew said, pulling on the rubbery, latex material of his symbiote before releasing it with a 'snap'.

Jennifer needed only a second to pick up the obvious meaning. "You're wearing one of those slime balls?! Are you fricking insane?!"

The sounds of snarling symbiotes finally drew them from their heated, albeit somewhat childish, argument. "You know what? I'll just have to explain _after_ I save your pretty little butt." Jennifer would have slapped him if she could stand.

He charged forward. "Alright, let's do our best _not_ to kill them. These people are all being controlled, after all. We need to put them down long enough to grab the lady and go." He felt Wavelength's mental agreement.

Wavelength's wrists exploded with tentacles, smashing into and wrapping around the symbiotes. He gripped and pulled, enhanced muscles bulging, as he swung around half a dozen hosts and sent them flying into the symbiote he had drop-kicked before, tearing up the inside of the store and crashing them into the back wall.

A symbiote tried to go for Jennifer while he was busy, but the tingling in the back of his neck alerted him. The symbiote was sent flying with a sucker punch for its impudence. "What's it like being a damsel in distress? I wouldn't know, being a guy," he asked almost noncommittally.

"Bastard! When I get out of this, your ass is mine!" Jennifer roared.

"My my, such course language for a young lady. How entirely improper," Andrew replied with a waggle of his right index finger before back-handing a snatcher and snapping a kick into its jaw that broke teeth and caved in its eyeless face. Jennifer then proceeded to let loose an extremely colorful string of profanities.

Wavelength sweated a little in Andrew's head. **'Maybe we shouldn't antagonize her. She looks about ready to kill us.'**

Andrew shrugged and side-kicked another snatcher, sending it flying away._ 'Meh, we don't really have to worry unless she somehow gets a sane symbiote bonded to her, but screw that. It would defeat the whole purpose of coming here.'_

Suddenly a massive symbiote could be seen stomping towards them from the back of the remaining symbiotes. It's red, shifting body bulged grotesquely with massive muscles and pulsing veins. Thick lashing tendrils wiggled and whipped about it's gigantic form.

It roared and the tendrils shot forward like bullets, tearing up the pavement and annihilating the rest of the pumps. "Holy crap!" yelled Andrew, using a symbiote web to snatch Jennifer into his arms, as he jerked and evaded with urgency. This did absolutely nothing positive for the female's condition but definitely beat the alternative of a painful and messy demise. The red tendrils dug into the ground and retracted, jerking the hulking behemoth towards them. "Crap on a stick!"

Andrew leaped high into the air still holding Jennifer, Wavelength using symbiotic tendrils to guide his descent onto the top of the station's convenience store. The thing smashed into the pavement, cratering the ground and sending chunks of road and metal everywhere. The name 'berserker' came to mind, as Wavelength fed him information. "Oh we are very much royally screwed," he gulped, setting Jennifer down on the intact roof. _'Wavelength, we're going to have to risk using the **Screech**. We can't fight something like that with any measure of brute force! Just do your best to dull it.'_

**'We could just have the sound emitted from your hands. We'd have to touch him for it to work, but it would hurt you less and expel it from the host,'** Wavelength informed.

_'Then that's just what we'll be doing,'_ Andrew nodded. "Sit tight, naked lady, we got this." He grinned under his dark-blue symbiote and leaped down, ignoring the ravings of a very pissed off girl.

He charged headlong at the berserker, body-checking a snatcher and dodging tendrils as best he could. Andrew decided it would be better to let Wavelength handle his reflexes against something he was definitely not ready for. The cyan disks on his hands began to lightly hum in preparation.

He keeled to the right as a tendril smashed into the ground and then did a dive roll and jump for a high and low slash respectively. Andrew struck out at the tendrils which squealed and dissolved when they touched his humming fists. Andrew felt a sharp headache begin to take form.

The berserker roared and struck forward. Ignoring his blaring spider sense, Andrew let his first meet the gargantuan one. Instantly, the berserker's fist blew away as though from an explosion at the point of contact. The berserker roared in agony, its forearm shakily beginning to reform, but Andrew had no intention of letting it recover.

The symbiote launched tentacles from its red body wildly, forcing Andrew to dodge and swing widely to destroy as many tendrils as possible. A scream of pain caused him to turn his attention to Jennifer, who was being reeled in by the grasp of several tentacles that had been shot out far overhead out of his reach. _'Crap! It wasn't ever really targeting me at all! I'm bonded to a symbiote! Of course it wasn't!'_

Andrew exploded into motion, moving through the behemoth's defenses, slamming into the berserker, and driving his open palms into its chest. The symbiote screeched in physical and mental torture, as its very cellular structure was disrupted, and it exploded in a shower of red goo. Jennifer was released and collided with Andrew from behind, knocking them both to the tarmac slick with gasoline and red symbiote goo.

Andrew gasped and clutched his head, the speakers on his hands now deactivated. His skull felt like it was going to split open; he was _definitely_ not going to be using Screech lightly in any form with this kind of backlash. "Gah!" he stumbled to his feet, vertigo cruelly assaulting him like a freight train. His vision blurred, as he stumbled with blurry vision. "C-come on, pretty lady. We gotta' go now."

"S-shut up. Damn you!" Jennifer stood up, clutching her ribs with her right arm. Her left arm had a bad case of road burn, and a gash bled freely above her left eye. Her dark-brown hair was matted with gasoline and blood.

"Frag you! We came to save you, you know," Andrew snapped.

**'This is not the time for this! Look out,'** Wavelength yelled in warning, as Andrew's spider sense blared like a siren, which did nothing for his headache.

Andrew turned to see the symbiote he had kicked at the beginning of the fight and buried under its brethren, standing just outside the giant, shredded, and torn up puddle of gasoline that was their battlefield, holding a lit liter with what appeared to amount to a smirk on it's toothy maw.

Andrew's expression was of a deadpan, as it dropped the liter into the gasoline. "Well frick you too..."

Even as the entire area lit up like a supernova, the remains of the berserker, soaked with gasoline lashed out onto Jennifer's shuddering form, doing its best to shield its only chance for a potential host from the fireball. Andrew leaped into it's mass as well seeing even a small chance of survival.

_KRATHOOM!_

* * *

Elsewhere, a giant mouth, filled with jagged, uneven fangs and having a wild, foot-long tongue, grinned wickedly.** "It seems we may have some prodigies in our spawn. Perhaps we should pay them a visit and congratulate them... that is if they survived... Heh heheh, heh... hah ahah HAHAHAHAH!"**

* * *

Pain...

Oh yeah, there was a whole lot of that. He didn't dare move. Even breathing was pure agony for his tortured lungs and chest.

_'Shit.'_

**'Our thoughts exactly.'**

_'Are we dying,'_ he asked wearily.

**'There is a distinct possibility of that occurring. We have no defense against fire... We are doing our best with healing though. We lost quite a bit of mass in the explosion and putting out the fire on our body, and that is making it difficult.'**

_'Crap,'_ he replied succinctly. _'Hey, what about the lady? Don't tell me this was all for nothing.'_ He winced and nearly cried out, as he felt Wavelength slowly regenerating and covering his burnt and charred skin. The pain was slowly but steadily beginning to recede, but he would definitely be feeling that in the morning, assuming they survived.

**'We do not know. She is nearby we think, but we cannot divert any attention from your delicate recovery,'** Wavelength responded tersely. It was clear he was also perhaps worried in the slightest through their bond.

Andrew grit his teeth and cracked his eyes open a touch. His vision was blurry and painful in his right eye, so he closed that one back up. His left eye turned laboriously about, taking in the devastation.

He caught site of a massive crater, where the gas station used to exist. The entire block was demolished, decorated with flames, rubble -of stone, wood, and metal, symbiotic goo, and blood. It was abundantly clear that the other symbiotes about had not survived. He was very glad he had left his backpack on a nearby building before jumping into the fight.

He nearly choked as the scalding, smoky air passed his chapped lips. He and Jennifer had been tossed into the side of a building, where they both now lay slumped on the rubble. His eye passed over the young woman's crumpled, bleeding form. He could see the surviving tendrils of the red symbiote trying to keep both of them alive and grit his teeth. She wasn't supposed to get infected. Hopefully, the **Screech**, combined with such a traumatizing explosion should have severed the formerly berserker's connection to the hive mind like Wavelength, and if the symbiote on Jennifer still had ill intentions, he would still be able to easily remove it with the** Screech**.

If by a small chance it wasn't still nuts, he decided it might be better to let it be though. Only good could come from having her own reasonable symbiote in a city now ruled by symbiotes. Actually, who was to say that this was only happening here in New York. This could be more widespread than he'd at first thought!

Wavelength was almost done healing Andrew's skin and now was able to divert more attention to his innards, now that he wasn't bleeding out from what seemed worse than third degree burns. The symbiote worked quickly now to help Andrew reach a level of acceptable health that could not be called 'eventually dead'. It seeped into his busted and mangled organs, filling in holes and soaking in once those holes were healed. Bones and fragments thereof were reset and repaired, as torn muscles and ligaments were sewn back together.

Ten minutes later, Andrew gave a shuddering sigh of relief, when he could finally sit back up, albeit still feeling like he'd been run over by a bus. He looked over at Jennifer, who still appeared to be much worse off than him, lying in a pool of her own blood.

He stumbled to his feet, wincing as he walked over the piles of rubble to her. Kneeling in front of her, he could see that the red symbiote covered her skin now in only sparse tendrils and patches, most likely diverting more attention to her vitals. She was mercifully unconscious. He slowly reached out his right hand, and the red symbiote flinched away, not wanting to be touched by such dangerous hands.

He only gave it a hard look. "As long as you don't make any attempts to harm her, me, or anyone else, I won't have a reason to remove you from her as your host." He had Wavelength retract from his right index finger. "Let's talk. Prove you've got only the best intentions in mind." His tone brokered no argument, and with a shudder, a single tentacle stretched up -hesitating only briefly before- to latch slightly onto his finger.

Andrew felt a new connection open up in his mind; he could also feel the red symbiote draining minute amounts of nutrients to help heal its wounded host. He didn't mind that. he'd be more tired later, but she would recover better. He decided to lead the conversation._ 'Now then, We would assume by your willingness to comply with our demands, that you have a achieved your own independence?'_

There was a pregnant pause. The red symbiote seemed to be choosing its words carefully. **'Yesss... our violent dissmantling and the gasoline that wass poisssoning but hass now been abssorbed by our genetic structure have allowed usss to become independent of the hive mind and our parent sssymbiote...'**

_'I certainly _hope_ you don't plan on taking after Venom. It's because of symbiotes like him that no one seems to like your kind,'_ Andrew replied with a warning glare. This was the only human he'd had contact with in an entire week, perhaps even longer, so there was no such thing as too overprotective to him in this instance.

The red symbiote did not argue his words.** 'We intend for now to do asss your partner, Wavelength, hasss informed uss he hass done. We ssshall be bonding with all but her mind in order to heal her, until sssuch a time asss ssshe will accept a full bond.'**

Andrew nodded in satisfaction. _'Alright then, you stay that course, and we'll get along just swimmingly. Besides, it'll be nice having some decent company around.'_ He laughed at Wavelength's indignant cry and disconnected from the red symbiote. _'Don't worry, I didn't leave you out of that category.'_

He gave a tired sigh and rolled his shoulders, standing up and glancing around. A few more stray symbiotes were filtering into the area but were leaving him and the young woman alone thanks to the symbiotes on both of them.

The energy that the red symbiote had siphoned from Andrew had been put to good use in the meantime, as now its host was covered in a slick, featureless, red wrap of symbiotic ooze and tendrils with odd little flecks of black mixed in at random intervals.

Andrew leaned down and hefted Jennifer up into his arms bridal style. She was still unconscious; he had no doubt she'd be spitting plenty of vulgarities otherwise. She really did have a colorful mouth.

Andrew then took off in a run, leaping onto a building and scaling it with his feet. It was a bit of a harried venture, as Jennifer's thinly cocooned form messed with his weight distribution. He reached the top with little trouble though.

* * *

A few minutes later of searching, climbing, and leaping, Andrew finally found the building where he had discarded his brown backpack in his haste. There was a small rubbery squeak between their symbiotes, as Andrew laid Jennifer's cocooned body next to his backpack.

He gave a tired groan and sat down heavily on the roof next to her, having Wavelength retract away from his face. A breeze filtered across the rooftops, causing his dark auburn hair to flicker across his vision minutely. The wind carried the slight scent of smoke from back at his violent excursion. Unlatching the top of his backpack, he reached in and took out both the water bottles and Gatorade he had raided from the apartment earlier that day. He downed those and the peanut butter crackers in silent, tired contemplation. He also tore open one of the bags of jerky and consumed it all slowly, savoring the first taste of meat in a week's time.

Jennifer was still unconscious, while the red symbiote appeared to have tightened around her in a more shiny, plastic doll look instead of wrapped mummy. Her symbiote still remained featureless, save for some small, shifting, black swirls in random spots.

Laying back on the roof spread-eagled, Andrew stretched with an arch of the back and groaned at the remaining phantom pains in his muscles. "Ugh..." He groaned and threw his arms up to sit up. "Whelp~, better find a good spot to wait out her healing."

He slipped his brown backpack on, leaving the rubbish from his snack on the roof. _'Need to remember to ransack some stores for chocolate soon,'_ he reminded himself.

Andrew picked Jennifer back up again bridal-style and took to the rooftops again, via leaping and climbing. He eventually settled for the inside of an H.E.B. general store, clearing off the top shelf on one side of the candy aisle section of the store and laying her there. Andrew then proceeded to eat just about _all_ the Snickers he could find, after which he made himself a symbiotic hammock between the top shelves of both sides and promptly fell into blissful asleep.

**AN: This chapter almost ended up being longer. I actually accidentally end up writing things longer than I thought they would be, when I'm aiming for something shorter. But meh, such is the result of constantly writing 10,000 word chapters.**

**Just to clarify before it is asked, Venom is the head of the 'hive mind'. Thus is the reason he knows about Andrew and Wavelength's confrontation. He saw it through his symbiote minions. He's no longer connected to Wavelength or the red symbiote, so he can't track them except with his minions or symbiote sense.**

**Anyways, R&amp;R! But no flames! Symbiote's don't like that at all... Yup! XP**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Spidey, his pals, not so pals, or any measure of property of Marvel. Only ze OCs R mines! Why you peeps no believe meh?! T^T**

**AN: This chapter is probably the one I had the most trouble starting so far, since this is where I really had to choose which direction the characters will be heading as the storyline progresses for Spider-man. As stated before, this story will be set in the timeline as though the player took all the black suit paths in the game. On the topic of H.E.B., I'm not sure if it's localized anywhere particular. I just know we have it in my state, so it shall be in my story, even if there aren't really any H.E.B.s in New York. So yeah... Meh, let's do this thing! :D**

"Yo,": Person

_'You there?'_: Person thinking

**'Yes'**: Symbiote (Mind)

_**Wonder what he wants?**_: Symbiote thinking

**"Let's do this thing!"**: Person and Symbiote out loud together/Powerful Character.

Ch 4: Of Symbiotes, Woman, and Chocolate (SAVE YOURSELVES!)

"Gosh damn it, my... everything hurts," Jennifer Gabriel hissed. Though even as she was sitting up clutching her head, she found herself to be in far less pain than would be expected from getting blown up, and _that_ rang all sorts of alarm bells in her head.

**'Ah ssso host Jennifer isss awake then?'**

_'Oh shit.'_

**'What doess our bonding have to do with defecation?'** the symbiote she now saw to be covering her asked.

Jennifer deadpanned at that. She looked around; it was easy to figure out she was in an H.E.B. thanks to all the signs, hanging from the ceiling depicting as such. How did she get here though? Did the symbiote pilot her body? That was an unnerving thought; though the fact that she was still actually conscious and in control of herself was somewhat more disturbing. What kind of game what it playing?

**'We are playing no sssuch gamesss asss you can conceive. Our intent is to sssurvive, to engage in ssymbiossiss with our host. You do know what the act of sssymbiossiss isss by definition, don't you? We are a _sssymbiote_, after all.'** the symbiote said to her. **'And we were rescued and brought to sssafety by the other host and his sssymbiote.'**

_'Other host-?'_ She finally noticed him with his symbiote mask retracted sprawled on a dark-blue hammock of symbiotic tendrils. "Of course, it's that idiot." She stood up and clenched her fists. "You ass!"

Andrew Darwinson had been sleeping quite contently, body on the quick mend and stomach full of copious amounts of chocolate. His spider sense woke him just in time to be smashed through his self-made hammock by a certain incensed female host. "Ow-! Wha-? Ack!" he spluttered as he was pounded into the floor with the power of righteous female fury.

He finally caught both of her fists and retracted his legs, kicking out and sending her crashing into the shelves opposite them. He thankfully didn't use enough force to knock over the shelf. The domino effect would have brought down half the store. She picked herself up and practically snarled at him, red symbiote tendrils flickering across her body like something akin to flames. Her mask was retracted to his relief, since it looked like her symbiote was telling the truth. Of course, that meant this was all her. She pointed an inch-long claw at him. "This is your fault, isn't it?!"

"What the hell?! Calm the frick down!" he snapped with a scowl. You don't punch people awake, damn it! If there was one thing he could never stand for in his life, it was being accused of doing something he hadn't done. "It was more of a 'don't fix what ain't broken' sort of thing. Without that symbiote, we would _both_ be dead!"

She narrowed her eyes dangerously but snapped her mouth closed; the erratic tendrils on her form beginning to calm down. Her eyes gave him a once over, before she snorted and began to inspect her own symbiotic form.

The alien's slick, dark-red form was tight and form-fitting without being uncomfortable she found. It covered her solidly from her toes to the back of her neck, fusing into her hair but leaving it dark brown. She gained a brief eye twitch when she noticed her hair swaying a little like it was alive, which currently might not have been to far off the mark.

Her fingers all bore one inch claws, which she clicked together curiously, but her feet were smooth. She had small but pronounced black, flame-like swirls that ran up the outside length of her arms, both side of her hands, her shins, and the sides of her legs and waist.

Larger black decals ran up from between and then over her breasts and shoulders, looking like the wings of a flaming bird.

She hmmed thoughtfully and then sighed, pinching her brow in irritation. She turned her gaze back to Andrew and held out a hand. "I suppose... I _should_ thank you for saving me from a worse fate, even _if_ you let one of the little leeches stay on me. I'm Jennifer."

He took the offered hand. "Andrew." He made a motion with his other hand. "And this is Wavelength."

She nodded in grudging greeting at the symbiote. It gurgled happily, causing her to shiver. She retracted her hand. "Anyway, what the hell are you doing willingly wearing one of those slime balls?"

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, you either get hunted or get your own." She glared, and he chuckled. "But in all seriousness, those ones out there are all little more than animals. I managed to do something that damaged Wavelength here enough to separate him from the hive mind, aka Venom, and allow him to develop an independent, unhostile consciousness. He and I have been bonded since yesterday."

"Uh yeah, but _why_ exactly are you even letting him?" she interrogated. "You seem to know what they're capable of. They can take control at any time."

He sighed and face-palmed. "In case you _didn't_ catch it before, they are _symbiotes_. They don't _want_ to take control. It's just Venom who's like that and, as a result, all symbiotes under his control. Their nature is to find a host and to assist and enhance them. All they really want is a home, proper nutrition, and a _friend_."

Jennifer had to blink at that. She furrowed her eyebrows "Eh, seriously? Seems unlikely, considering all the examples we've had thus far."

**'Venom and Carnage are actually _better_ examplesss of what our race hasss been like,'** her symbiote spoke up again. **'The ressst of our race prefersss to sssimply consume their hosstsss whole and then move on to another. Venom wasss originally banished from our home world for ssseeking companionssship with his hosstsss insstead of death. Ssspider-man's violent rejection left a bad impresssion on him of humanity, and ssso he ssought out revenge and dessstruction in retribution. By comparissson to the rest of our planet, Venom is a sssaint. Or at leasst, he usssed to be. The host'sss perssonality always effectsss their sssymbiote to the extreme. Carnage is an example of sssuch.'**

Jennifer thought about it and realized the truth in the words, when the symbiote sent her a sudden rush of memories. "Uh... wow. Just... wow... So, what does that mean for us?"

**'It means we ssshall sstay with you,'** replied the red and black symbiote. **'You are our hossst now. We ssshall grant you an enhanced version of Ssspider-man'sss powersss and help you with everyday tasksss. We are bonded in all but mind. Besidesss, with usss, you ssshal be able to defend yourssself from our wayward brethren.'**

"Huh... Anything else I should know about this new... partnership?" Jennifer asked slowly.

**'Yesss, we require a sssteady sssupply of chocolate to cover for a chemical that can also be found in grey matter, like human brains. Otherwissse we and our hossst both become less resssonable and far more aggresssive.'**

She suddenly blinked back into reality and caught a Hershey's bar that had been chucked at her face. Andrew was grinning as if he had somehow heard their conversation, which he _had_ heard her half of. "You should eat that. You both are probably testy from her having spent so much energy on healing you."

Jennifer raised an eyebrow but opened the bar nonetheless. "Her?"

"Well yeah," Andrew shrugged. "Technically, the symbiotes are genderless, but I think it's nice to dub them with the gender of their host. They are living things too, creatures who can think and feel just as well as anyone else. It gives them a bit of personification." He paused. "On that line of thought, you decided on a name for her yet?"

"A name?"

"Sure, it's not like they name themselves," Andrew answered "That job actually falls mostly to the host." he downed a Butterfinger bar. "It's a good thing to do, and it's what Wavelength and I have decided to call ourselves when visibly bonded." She blinked. "Anyway, you could always name her after any unique abilities she grants you, which if the deviation from the usual look is any indication _probably_ has something to do with fire."

Jennifer looked her symbiote over again. "Uh, why is it different?"

Andrew shrugged. "Most likely? She somehow absorbed _fire_, which shouldn't be possible _ever_, as that stuff kills symbiotes deader than a doornail."

Jennifer stiffened for a second before speaking. "'She' tells me she absorbed a lot of gasoline, and when the gasoline in her DNA caught fire the fire was summarily absorbed."

Andrew brought a hand to his chin, as he tended to do quite often. "Well that's actually quite genius. Of course, all symbiotes in general are geniuses." Wavelength and the other symbiote chirped happily. "Wavelength absorbed my mp3 player and a small speaker, and now we are immune to the symbiote weakness to sound and actually have the ability to produce our own. And we'd almost bet you are immune to and can produce some measure of fire."

"Really?" Jennifer asked.

"Yah, though like us you'll most likely be limited like us without bonding fully," Andrew replied. "My mind is not bonded and is thus exempt from Wavelength's immunity. It takes only seconds apparently for me to be struck with a headache and a powerful case of vertigo. If you do have the ability to produce flames, you'll probably start to quickly tire from the heat and get heatstroke or something." He popped some bite-sized Snickers in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully.

Jennifer nibbled on the Hershey's bar. "So, you need a full bond to get out of the backlash?"

"Yeah," Andrew said. "But again, Wavelength and I have only been bonded for a day, perhaps less than that. To fully bond is to trust your partner implicitly. You'll practically become a single person. Thoughts, memories, emotions; everything is shared. And the bond is so complete, if one of you dies so will the other."

That caused them both to become quiet for a bit. She looked at her symbiote again. "A name for you, eh?" She slipped the rest of the chocolate into her mouth and licked her fingers clean, finding herself enjoying the treat more than usual. With a wry grin she spoke again. "Probably should go with the not-so-subtly suggested fire theme, so let's see now. We've got a big flamin' birdy of doom on my chest, so just going from there makes me think you got a few ideas already in mind." There was a sheepish giggle in the back of her head that she had to smirk at. "So what say you, my goopy mud puppy, to being called Inferno? Cause Phoenix is far too cliché."

There was a mental shrug; Jennifer smirked at that. "I don't really think you would go to all the trouble of the unique decals if you _couldn't_ make fire or do something of the like. _Inferno_ it is then."

Andrew smirked. "Wavelength and Inferno. We're both immune to and can produce one of the two great weaknesses of the symbiote race. I can just see it now!" he announced exuberantly, drawing a surprised Jennifer into his side with an arm on her shoulder. "This is the kind of partnership that starts legends!"

Jennifer's eye twitched, and she pulled out of his grip, even as the edge of her mouth twitched upward. "You just keep dreaming that, you idiot. Legends are for fairy tails, and this is the _real_ world, messed up as that is."

Andrew laughed, though he knew she was probably right. Still, _someone_ had to be the voice of optimism around here. He then gave her a serious look. "But just think for a sec'. Every symbiote I've ever hit directly -albeit that's only been two really- with my sound has been freed from Venom's control. Imagine if we could do that for _every_ symbiote." Her eyes slowly widened at that. "If this all goes south, and these things spread across the entire planet, we _really could_ save the world."

Jennifer gaped openly at that. "You... You _actually_ think you could do that? What about the backlash from using that power?"

He grinned. "That should be obvious. In the future if it's for the good of all, Wavelength and I will just have to fully bond, and who can say that will be a bad thing?" Jennifer stayed silent before nodding reluctantly.

"So, jerkass," she eventually asked, "Now what?"

Andrew just made a wide gesture with a grin. "Now, naked lady?" She choked on her second Hershey's bar and glared heatedly at him. "We stuff ourselves and pack up all the gosh damn chocolate we can carry!" Jennifer just rolled her eyes at that and continued to glare.

**'Humans,'** their symbiotes sighed.

* * *

What they did eventually end up doing was finding Jennifer her own black backpack to Andrew's brown. Both had a small variety of healthy food as well as chocolate... but mostly chocolate. The craving was starting to pick up in earnest. Jennifer had wanted to find some clothes, before she was told that Inferno could shift into anything she could imagine. Then she was informed that they would most likely be mobbed by hoards of symbiotes if she wore anything other than her symbiote skin while on the move or otherwise.

And so it was that Wavelength and Inferno took to the symbiotic rooftops of their infected home city together, with Jennifer now in her full symbiotic form that still left her auburn locks flowing behind her and gave her a pair of small, jagged, white eyes like Andrew.

Andrew briefly stopped, glancing around with narrowed eyes at a slight tingling in the back of his neck. Jennifer landed next to him with a similar expression of unease in her white eyes. "You feel it too?" she asked.

Andrew gave another look around, having Wavelength extend his senses. He sighed upon finding nothing. "Maybe we're just paranoid. Perhaps it's nothing..." And the two continued on their way.

If only they knew that indeed a behemoth of sinew and muscle, consumed by a calculation thirst for vengeance, stood like a coiled viper, massive, pink tongue flailing from its gaping, toothy maw watching them search for other survivors from the shadows underneath a gargoyle on a tall building several hundred meters away. Venom grinned maliciously; he could practically _taste_ the potential from here. **"Yessss, they shall _both_ make fine warriors for our new Synoptic! Heh heh heh!"**

**AN: Bet you all can make an educated guess at what's going to be happening next chapter. This is all just before Spider-man fights the symbiote Vulture, and Venom takes control of the Helicarrier. In about three or four chapters, we'll be at the end of the game and then the next wing of the story will commence.**

**And as always, R&amp;R! And no flames please! Symbiotes _hate_ that! Though if they do come to burn us, we shall just have Inferno eat them... _She_ likes flames... XP**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: If I don't do this, Fury will have the Avengers on my ass like a cat and a mouse... And I'm the mouse... *sobs* I don't own Spider-man or anything from Marvel. My OCs are all I own... Crap. TT3TT**

**AN: In case you didn't catch it before, _he_ is coming. No... Rather, _he_ is already here! Who can save our poor little symbiote hosts now?**

"Yo,": Person

_'You there?'_: Person thinking

**'Yes'**: Symbiote (Mind)

_**Wonder what he wants?**_: Symbiote thinking

**"Let's do this thing!"**: Person and Symbiote out loud together/Powerful Character.

Ch 5: **"Venom!"**

Andrew and Jennifer propelled themselves through the air like missiles, launching and retracting symbiotic tentacles, as they swung through the city, looking for any sign of non-symbiotic life. Though it was starting to seem like such a thing might not be possible. Two entire days of nothing to show for it, and they were both starting to get frustrated and somewhat discouraged.

They had managed to remain courteous with each other, but their personalities were constantly prone to conflict, leading them to argue and compete at least half the entire time that they were mutually conscious. Still, they were both on edge, and not from each other either. Their spider-senses had continued to flare at odd times, but there was never any danger to be found when they would check. It had left them, humans and symbiotes both, _very_ paranoid.

Not wanting to be surprised by the backlash again, Andrew had worked with Wavelength to learn his full limits with using their Screech. At the lowest frequency which could effect an opposing symbiote, he could last only about a minute straight. This was while moving and only using the speakers on his hands. Sitting stationary and concentrating to drown out the noise, he could last about double the time. Any longer, and Andrew would be involuntarily trying to empty his stomach, ears and nose bleeding. It also helped to only emit sound in short, controlled bursts, which extended his endurance, depending on how long he held each burst. Using sound with all his speakers at the same time was not an option _ever_. Ten _seconds_ would put him out of commission completely for an entire respective ten _minutes_.

Jennifer had been experimenting with Inferno as well in their flame usage. It had freaked her out the first time, when she had lit up like a female version of the human torch with billowing, crimson flames that could melt through solid steel and concrete. Coincidentally, she had basically melted straight down through the building she'd been standing on at the time. Both Andrew and Wavelength had gotten a kick out of that, but Jennifer had threatened to brand them in their sleep if they continued to mention it. They knew she'd follow up on it too.

Andrew had been spot-on with his predictions in any case. Jennifer tired far more quickly when she used Inferno's flames. Prolonged usage eventually left her a shuddering, exhausted mess. Though, she could use the flames far longer than Andrew could handle Wavelength's sound. She had bragged a bit about this, until it was rather snidely pointed out that _her_ powers didn't attack her very _brain_. The flames tended to start at and spread along where ever the Jennifer's symbiote had it's flame decals, something about those areas having more gasoline essence in them.

Both hosts had consumed liberal amounts of chocolate in this time to replenish what energy their symbiotes had lost with their experiments. They also discovered the existence of both their symbiotes' inner pocket dimensions, which they could create to carry near infinite possessions safely. Needless to say, several more stores were quickly liberated completely of all their chocolate stock. They shared equally what they found, though Andrew vehemently refused to relinquish any of _his_ precious Butterfinger. A mystery about his pickiness it was.

* * *

Wavelength launched a pair of tendrils at the massive form of the Empire State building, zip-lining himself to stand on the windows. Inferno landed momentarily after him, and they both began to scale the structure. Upon reaching the top, Andrew gave a long whistle. "Wow, you never really know what you're missing till you see a sight like this." It was early morning, and the warm, golden sunrise reflected of the windows of the city, making it all glitter like diamonds.

"Yeah, 'cept for all the damn symbiote nests and webs covering half it," Jennifer interjected into his reverie.

He gave her a dirty look, though the effect was neutralized by his mask. "I thought we went over this already. It's not their fault; Venom is controlling them."

Jennifer shook her head. "There's still always that chance that we just got _very_ lucky. Seriously, we don't know why you're suddenly so gung ho about saving those feral things."

Andrew just sighed and pulled out a map of the city. He secured it against windy roof with several tendrils and brought a hand to his chin in what was becoming his 'thinking face'. "Since we haven't found anyone, we suppose we can assume they have all mostly been gathered up and protected. The military and supers are probably all hiked down in the same place, somewhere symbiotes can't reach easily, if at all."

Jennifer looked out over the city. "Where the hell could they all actually go? Symbiotes aren't limited at all. There's nothing they can't climb, nothing they can't break or dig through with time. What could deter them? Are we sure they haven't already won?"

Andrew chuckled, "Oh believe you _me_, the heroes and villains of this city are resourceful if nothing else. And that's not even to begin with the military of SHIELD..." He blinked and then slapped a hand to his head. "Duh! Penny-!"

"Jennifer," she growled.

"Whatever," he waved her off. "Haven't you ever seen that giant hover craft, that flies over the city every now and then?" She nodded, instantly seeing where he was going with this. "Heh heh, they're all probably just lazing about over our heads like kings, most likely out in the bay, so there's little chance of someone clever launching themselves up and onto them."

She nodded again and then dead-panned. "So, what then? It's not like we can just walk up to SHIELD and say 'Hey! We have symbiotes on us, but don't worry! These ones are totally good and not evil mind-controlling, body-snatchers at all, unlike the other 99.999% of them!'" Andrew deadpanned with a little sweat. "And, oh yes! Now that you mention it, it's not like we can even sprout wings and fly over in the first place."

"Yeah... I guess you're right," he muttered. "They'd never trust us, and if they did let us on they'd take Wavelength and Inferno away and probably kill or experiment on them. We could never go there, even if we found them."

Jennifer looked away with a sigh. "It's good you'll listen to reason when it's presented, but what does that mean for us now?"

Andrew clenched his fists. "Now...? This can not _possibly_ be it. We live in the same city as the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, for cryin' out loud! Both groups have geniuses of absurd levels. And we've got the one and only school for mutants just off the bay! Don't tell me you seriously believe that people like Iron Man or the Human Torch, who is literally untouchable to symbiotes, got caught!"

"You know, that's a good point, ass," she mused.

"Then it's settled. We'll head for the Baxter building and see if we can't get some much needed help there," Andrew announced.

Jennifer snorted. "Don't get too confidant, ass. We said it before, and we'll say it again. This is the _real_ world. Piece-of-cake happy endings are for fairy tails." He gave her a slightly raised white eye tear in response. She groaned. "I'm just sayin', don't get your hopes up. Generally, everything that can go wrong _will_ go wrong when you try to be a hero."

Andrew frowned at that. "Whatever... Let's just get going." He placed the map of the city in his backpack and turned to leap off in the direction of the FF's HQ. The buzzing in the back of his neck suddenly returned...

**"You should listen to your female companion. She seems to be more sensible in the ways things work."**

Both hosts spun around with wide symbiotic eyes. Perched just above their heads on the tip top of the Empire State building's spire was none other than Venom, in all his hulking, black glory with a wide grin. **"Venom!"** they both chorused in surprise with a slight symbiotic overtone, their symbiotes both obviously very engaged in their dangerous new situation. It was very obvious now who _exactly_ had been stalking them these past few days.

**"Fuck,"** Inferno stated crudely. Andrew flinched at her continued vulgarity.

**"Gladly, It might be our last chance before we possibly die brutally and painfully,"** Wavelength said with a mostly sarcastic expression... _mostly_.

**"Screw you, pervert!"**

_"Brutally and painfully,"_ he annunciated.

**"Shut up!"** she finally snapped, flames flickering and retreating briefly into being on her black decals.

He did, which was good, since she had been about to accost him violently, dangerous mass murderer present only a few yards away or no. Both of their symbiotes absorbed their packs into the symbiotes' respective pocket dimensions; this had the potential to get very messy _very_ quickly.

Venom, meanwhile, continued to sit on the pole, looking equal parts confused and amused. **"So you know who we are? Then perhaps you know why we are here."**

Andrew gave him a flat look. "In this city, hell, in this _country_, who doesn't know who you are?" He snorted sarcastically. "Especially after you pull a stunt like _this_. Also why the hell wouldn't we know? Our others are your descendants."

He received a blood-red, latex knuckle to the top of the head. **"Damn it!"** Jennifer snapped, symbiotic overtone a sign of she and her symbiote's mood.** "Are you really going to continue with that attitude, especially right now, in front of _Venom_ of all people?!"**

**"This spawn appears to know who to respect around here. You would be wise to heed their words,"** Venom said with a maniacal smile.

Jennifer whirled back towards him, white, symbiotic eyes narrowed. **"It's not that we _respect_ you _or_ agree with your ideals; it's that we respectfully _fear_ you and your power. No matter how damn confident we _ever_ get in our abilities, you both will always be several years our senior in experience."**

Venom grinned. **"All the better."**

Andrew laughed, getting attention drawn to him once more. "_We_ on the other hand, don't even have _that_ much respect for you. We use _sound_, bitches. In a fight with us, you'd _both_ be screwed, even working _together_."

Venom's eyes narrowed dangerously, as his grin faltered briefly. Jennifer snarled, teeth grit tightly beneath her symbiote. **"Do you ever fricking _shut up_? You're not helping _anything_! Shit, it's like you _want_ to get into a death match with _THE_ _Venom_."**

Andrew actually seemed to think about it. "Honestly, we think it'd be interesting, if nothing else. Though, indeed, it would be a stupid thing to do presently without being fully bonded."

Venom seemed to raise a nonexistent brow. **"You are not fully bonded? Why is that, spawn?"**

Andrew twitched at the name. "_We_ do not consider ourselves your _spawn_. But to answer your question. Symbiosis is a partnership; you realized this yourself at one time. Though your ideals and moral compunctions seem to have suffered the length of your time with Brock." Venom's eyes narrowed. "We shall bond fully when we believe we can trust each other completely. But until then, we shall deal with the consequences."

Venom frowned a bit at this. Now that he sensed it, he could tell that the girl and Inferno were also of the same opinion. Their uniqueness also struck him as _very_ intriguing. **"We wish to inquire how it is that you both are so... independent?"** Venom inquired carefully.

Andrew puffed up his chest with a boisterous laugh that Jennifer groaned at. "Our sound waves are _so_ potent, that they disrupt symbiotes' connection to your infernal hive mind, giving them individuality." Now _that_ was a startling piece of information. This symbiote might be too dangerous to have any sort of dealings with. Should he kill him now? "Seriously, do you really even _need_ a hive mind? All you end up with is useless cannon fodder. There's no human element that promotes true improvement and expansion. Cause when you have symbiotes bonding with their host's personality, you get more badasses like us. Besides, if there weren't the whole 'taking over your mind' thing and if your symbiotes acted like the _actual_ _symbiotes_ that they are, we're quite sure most of the world would accept them readily. There are far too many benefits as opposed to negatives."

Venom blinked and growled. **"We will not be told how to run our new Synoptic, spawn."** Andrew and Wavelength bristled.** "We are here to bring you to your rightful positions as our subordinates. You could even be generals of your own core each in the army, like many other of the turned super villains and heroes in this city. Your special traits would spawn some of the most powerful symbiotes in the empire."** Venom slid down the spire a little ways, almost coming within one of his massive arm lengths of them, the left of which he reached out.** "Join us, and you shall both have all the power you could ever desire."**

It was a startlingly tempting offer. There might actually be a bit of good they could do. And in such positions, Venom would not continue to hunt them down. The symbiotes they would create would be spawn of Wavelength and Inferno, and they could make sure that every one was independent. But what if they weren't... Andrew and Wavelength could suddenly feel a subtle nudge at their consciousness. I looked like their connection to Venom wasn't as completely nonexistent as they had thought.

**"Like hell!"** roared Wavelength, back-tracking to the edge of the spire's base. **"Stay out of our head, you bastard!"**

Jennifer and Inferno instantly noticed the connection themselves at his outburst and exploded into crimson flames. Wavelength winced, but wasn't as close as Venom, who screeched in pain as the tongues of flame licked at his claws. **"No one controls us! We'll rip you apart, Venom!"** she screamed furiously, her mask making a cracking sound, as it split into a jagged symbiote jaw, no longer able to properly contain her rage. Her teeth were even and the same color as her symbiote, and she lacked the lashing, pink tongue. Her muscles swelled subtly, and her short claws grew to solid three inch ones. Angry, flaming, symbiotic tendrils lashed about her body furiously, and Inferno gave a piercing shriek of rage. And as the temperature actually began to climb around the three symbiotes, it suddenly occurred to Venom that this may have been a poor idea.

* * *

Nick Fury was a lot of things. Patient was not one of them. It had been an agonizing time waiting for the Tinkerer to finish construction on a device that would eliminate the symbiote presence from the city for good. And in the mean time, they had had to rely on Spider-man to hold them off, while SHIELD rescued civilians and supers alike. What made it odd was how Spider-man seemed to believe he could control the symbiote he had been infected with, when every other symbiote had proven otherwise. For now though it seemed, they would be forced to trust him. At least, that was before...

He had just gotten a report that after Spider-man had freed Black Cat from Venom's symbiote, he had then infected her with his. The reasons were unclear, but he seemed to believe he had actually saved her. Fury shook his head. However, it seemed the Tinkerer was finally finished; his machine was finally in place on top of the Trask tower.

"Sir!" a SHIELD agent called, entering the Director of SHIELD's office.

"Report," Fury ordered.

"Sir! The instruments on the bridge have picked up a large heat signature in the city," the agent said.

* * *

Moments later, Fury was on the bridge. "Do we have eyes?"

"Negative sir," an agent responded.

"Then get us some. Where is it coming from?" Fury commanded. His subordinates hurried to do as he asked.

"Somewhere on or around the Empire State," replied a woman at her station.

"Get us closer."

"Yes sir!" chorused several voices.

* * *

**"RRRrraaaaHH!"** Venom leaped away, as Inferno impacted with the base of the spire in an explosion of heat and metal. Symbiotic tendrils exploded from the resulting dust cloud, scattering stone and steel everywhere.

Andrew leaped and swung around the top of the building with symbiote webs, frantically trying to calm down the female host. He yelled in surprise, as a flaming tendril swooped between his legs. He only barely dodged with an upward jerk on his symbiote web lines. **"Holy crap, Penny! Calm the hell down! You're losing it!"**

**"_IT'S_ _JENNIFER_, and stay out of this if you know what's good for yourselves!"** she roared back. **"We'll kill him alone!"**

**"Frick that!"** Andrew raved.** "You're not even aiming for us, and we almost died! Stop it! If you keep going, you'll just burn yourself out!"**

Inferno ignored him and locked onto Venom, who had landed further down on the building windows. She screeched and launched herself at him, tendrils digging into and tearing apart the side of the building. Venom dodged her wild, sloppy attacks with the practiced ease of the veteran he was. He snarled in annoyance at the suffocating heat being emitted by the female symbiote host.

Andrew wasn't sure who to help. He could try and kill Venom and perhaps end this whole mess, or he could try and snap Jennifer out of her rage. She probably wasn't doing any favors to her symbiote either, since symbiotes took heavily after their hosts. Inferno would end up being far more angry naturally after this if it kept up much longer and as a result so would Jennifer.

He suddenly made his choice.** "Wavelength, we're going to use a Screech at about a fourth's power! That should be able to put Venom down for a second and knock some sense into them!"**

At Wavelength's mental nod, Andrew retracted his tendrils and went into a free dive toward the combating symbiotes. He prepared himself mentally to drown out as much of the noise as possible, zipping downwards like a bullet.

* * *

Moments before on the Helicarrier...

"Sir, we have a visual!"

"Let's see it!" Fury said.

A large, holographic screen was brought up, showing three figures zipping around the Empire State building at high speeds. A moment of stillness allowed them to see who it was. "Venom," Fury growled. He noted the other two beings who were obviously hosts; though it was the one that was creating fire that worried him.

He watched as the blue yelled at the red to calm down and made attempts to do just that, only to be violently repelled. So the other two hosts were in control, or at least the blue one was... for now. And if it were to be perceived, they were not with Venom.

He watched the blue one go into a free-fall toward the other two and cross his arms in an 'x' formation. The blue one collided with the back of an unsuspecting and distracted Venom's neck, before a piercing noise exploded outwards, shattering the windows closest to them and repelling Venom like a magnet. The red symbiote screeched and jerked, flames extinguished in an instant.

The screen was fuzzy for a few seconds, but the cause and effect were clear. The three symbiote's smashed into the rooftop of a smaller building as writhed in pain. Venom howled in agony, and the red symbiote host seemed to just lay there panting and twitching as her symbiote recovered and began to cover her body again. The one who seemed the least effected -but was effected non the less- was the blue one, who had made the sound. He was stumbling and making heaving motions, as he struggled to stay standing, though his symbiote seemed wholly unaffected.

Fury could easily deduce that the host was being effected by using his symbiote's abilities, obviously not having a way to block out the debilitating noise. But then Fury realized something; those two symbiotes each lacked one of the symbiote weaknesses. These were potentially more dangerous than any before them. They would have to be exterminated.

"Prepare a missile strike!" Fury commanded. "Venom is weakened. We will take this chance to cut the head off of the symbiote menace!"

With enthusiastic cries, the soldiers began to prepare to fire. Fury, meanwhile, would continue to watch...

* * *

Andrew stumbled over to Jennifer, and with a hiss collapsed to his hands and knees. "Damn it," he cursed. The symbiotic overtone was no more. He clutched his face, as the world spun more. "Get up, naked lady, and help me. We don't have time for this!"

"Screw you," Jennifer growled, ribs protesting, as she rolled over.

"Later."

"Gosh damn you to hell. That fricking hurt," she snapped.

"It's your own fault for going ape shit crazy back there," Andrew growled. "Doing stuff like that will get you killed, and giving into your rage hurts Inferno too. You could drive her just as crazy as Venom!" Jennifer said nothing to that. "Speaking of that utter jerk face..."

**"Rah!"** Venom came crashing down from the air, fist connecting with Andrew's head before he could even think about reacting with a 'crunch' and sending him exploding through the roof of the building.

"Gah!" he cried, as his fall stopped two floors down. Head ringing, he looked up to see Venom take a half-covered Jennifer by the neck and lift her up. The black symbiote began rained devastating punches all across her form, keeping her from reacting with each brain-rattling strike to the head.

Andrew snarled and forced himself up, spine and back aching. Suddenly, he caught a terrifying sight. The SHIELD helicarrier hovered directly above them, massive cannons swiveling into a prime position to blow them all to hell. "Crap!"

He launched several tendrils through the hole he had made with his descent and launched himself upwards at Venom, only to be brutally backhanded by the symbiote. Andrew crashed into and bounced across the roof a couple time, stopping just short of the edge. **"Pathetic,"** Venom stated.

Andrew cursed again, as Wavelength helped him move. He gave another glance at the helicarrier and then looked back at Venom, who had continued to beat the shit out of Jennifer. The poor girl was bruised black and blue. Some were healing but were quickly and brutally replaced.

Andrew sucked in a breath and bit his lip. _'What are our chances here? We can't beat Venom, not like this.'_

**'He's fully bonded and heals faster. Faster, stronger, and much much more experienced; he is all that in a single package of berserker-like fury,'** Wavelength stated bluntly.

_'So about a snowball's chance in hell,'_ Andrew chuckled. _'And now there's SHIELD. They look pretty prepared to fire, even if we end up as collateral. Actually, I bet they're _hoping_ we're collateral. What in the hell are we supposed to even do then?'_

**'Survive,'** said Wavelength.** 'We need to escape. Though at least for all this, we now know SHIELD is hostile. That's definitely good to know now, rather than be surprised by it later.'**

_'Yeah, it is, but that doesn't exactly get us out of here. We'll be dead in only moments, Jennifer probably a little sooner.'_ Andrew scowled._ 'I can only think of two ways we're getting out of here. Either you take control of my body... or we perform a full bond right here and now.'_

The symbiote was startled. **'You would do that just to survive? We thought you wanted to wait till we could develop a better bond that wasn't mental?'**

Andrew snorted. _'If I can trust you to take my body for a drive and then give it back, then I can trust you to work with me as one.'_

**'We cannot heal your body quickly enough to make any good use of a possession. If it is what you wish, then we shall become one.'**

Andrew grinned wryly. _'Heh, screw it. This is as good a reason as any.'_ "Let's _frickin'_ do this thing!" Venom jerked at the noise and turned from Jennifer's beating, to the barely-conscious girl's utter relief.

Andrew opened his mind completely, as his symbiote did the same, and the two melded together, sharing their thoughts, memories, and feelings. Andrew was nearly overwhelmed by the rush of new information, but smashed most of it down to inspect later. All he needed right now was the ability to access all Wavelength was capable of.

The pain in his head from the Screech was but a memory now, as were the rest of the injuries he had sustained, as the symbiote was now able to fully access and heal every crevice of his being. Wavelength enhanced Andrew further; the symbiote's skin becoming more durable than ever. The muscles of his arms and legs became even denser and more prominent, while still retaining their lean form. His pecs and abs became more defined.

A feral grin went unnoticed from behind his symbiote mask. "This is awesome." He flexed his arms experimentally and shifted on the balls of his feet. **"We feel better than ever!"**

Venom stared at him curiously before his symbiote smile grew near wide enough to split his entire head.** "How interesting. So you have chosen to complete your bond in order to fight us."**

Andrew laughed. **"If it comes to that. We'd just love to finish our little brawl with you, but as it is we just don't have the time."** He exploded into motion straight at Venom.

**"Oh? How rude. But don't worry; we can make some time for _you_!"** Venom yelled, tossing Jennifer aside and making a wide, upward swing into Andrew's path. Andrew's spider sense warned him to swerve early, as Venom's arm extended. The black symbiote's claws just barely raked past Andrew's left arm.

**"Yeah sorry, but we don't swing that way, which means you miss! Get it?"** Andrew laughed, as Venom snarled and tried for a back-swing with the same arm. **"But hey, here's a consolation prize!"** Andrew ducked low and lashed out, right forearm vibrating. **"We'll only make the arm you attacked us with explode!"** His arm connected with Venom's and won easily, digging into the symbiote and causing it to destabilize and explode violently. **"Eye for an eye and all that jazz, ya know?"** Andrew finished cheekily. Venom roared in pain and anger. Seething, the black symbiote clutched its host's bare arm and backed away.

Andrew leaped over to Jennifer's still -but alive- form, now fully covered in her red symbiote again, and hefted her onto his back. **"This was fun, big V, let's do it again sometime."**

**"Not so fast, spawn!"** Venom roared, arm fully regenerated. Tendrils exploded from his arms toward the teens. **"You won't get away from us!"**

**"Yeah~, we kinda' will though,"** Andrew replied, dodging and slapping away the tendrils with vibrating hands. Wavelength had Jennifer secured safely to Andrew's back. He charged Venom, making his own dark-blue tentacles to combat Venom's black ones. Venom snarled and back-tracked, seeing the younger symbiote host's attempts to get closer.

More tendrils shot out of Wavelength's mass; however, these were aimed at all the areas of the roof. Andrew zip-lined at Venom with a shout, firing tendrils all around to steer him further. One tendril managed to catch Venom's chest for a split second, and he jerked towards the black symbiote. He lashed both legs out, catching the older host's symbiote chin in a vicious drop kick.

Venom was launched into the air like a rocket. He sent out tendrils to steer himself, but they were negated by a set of dark-blue ones. Andrew slammed into him, latching onto his bulky chest. **"Well, _if_ you _insist_. Then we have no problems with kicking your collective butt!"**

Symbiote spikes exploded from Venom's form, as they fell back toward the roof, digging through Wavelength into Andrew's skin. He winced but couldn't do a full-body vibrate, while Inferno was on his back. He'd hurt her too. So he settled for pushing through the pain, flipping on the speakers on his hands, and laying into Venom with everything he had.

Andrew's left hand smashed into Venom's chest, indenting into it and earning an enraged roar. His right arm was raised high, as it bulged massively, before he brought it down on Venom's face with all the force he could muster.

Venom's head collapsed half-way inward, and the black symbiote rocketed downward. Wavelength didn't let him finish his fall, sending out more tendrils to slow him and bring Andrew down on his chest with a 'crack'. Andrew felt Brock's ribs give as he leaped off of Venom, allowing the symbiote to finish his descent with a 'crash'.

Andrew landed nimbly on his feet and stared at the felled form of Venom in the center of a small crater on the roof. He chuckled a little. **"Well hot damn. We just beat the crap outta' freakin' Venom. Probably just got lucky though. No need to get cocky."** He turned to leave the roof, as he heard the helicarrier's cannons finally finish warming up.

**"Nighty night then!"** Andrew called back gleefully. **"The exterminators have your number, and they were only _far_ too happy to answer the call!"** Their battle since landing on the smaller roof had taken all of two minutes. He took off in a harried leap as SHEILD finally proceeded to rain their entire arsenal down upon Venom's prone form. The explosion and resulting shockwave completely obliterated the building from existence.

In all the chaos, no one would notice a single, black tendril latch onto the underside of the helicarrier.

Andrew grunted and let out a small cry of pain, as he was caught in the blast radius, flinging him and his passenger through the air in a violent uncontrolled fling. "Gah!" Andrew yelled, as he impacted off the side of a building and flailed wildly. Wavelength did his best to catch them, and the fall no longer became lethal. But their impact was still none too pretty.

They hurtled through the air from Wavelength's desperate half-swing into a previously demolished courtyard before a church. Andrew shielded Jennifer's exhausted, unconscious form, taking the full force of their fall. He cried out in agony, as he felt his shoulder give. Wavelength ejected Inferno in the opposite direction of his momentum, allowing her to land far safer than him. Andrew, however, bounced off the ground and smashed through the remaining half of an angel statue, demolishing it in a shower of dust and rubble. The statue slowed his momentum and made the next fall his last.

For a little bit, Andrew could only lay there silent, taking in painful gasps of air, as Wavelength healed his shoulder. When he looked around eventually, he took note of the state of the church's courtyard and the state of the church in general.

The courtyard was cratered and torn apart; symbiotic goo was scattered everywhere. the church's front doors were broken down, and a side building, of which the purpose he could not determine, was completely collapsed. Many sections of the stone walls around the courtyard were either not even there or gouged with large sets of three slashes with what seemed to have been massive claws.

Finally, his gaze fell on a still figure. How he had missed them before he had no idea. He stood up with a wince, clutching his still healing shoulder and strode over slowly. A pit seemed to make itself known in his stomach, as he drew closer. Half-way there, he drew in a sharp breath and quickened his pace.

The large man lay in a tattered, yellow and black costume, and he was torn in half from the waist down, lying in a large pool of blood and symbiote goo. This had been a titan's last stand.

"Holy crap," Anthony said with a gaping expression beneath his symbiote. "It's Wolverine, and he's dead..."

**AN: Boom bada yada! Yet another chapter that was freakin' _long_ on _accident_. Geez... The trouble I had most with this chapter was somehow making them meet Venom, fight him, be completely outmatched, and still get away believably. I felt in the end that the only way to do this was have Andrew finally bond fully with Wavelength. Seriously, those sound and fire abilities are OP, and I have to constantly find ways to put them at a disadvantage... at least for now. This also lets me say 'Hey look! _That's_ how Venom got on the helicarrier!'. If the scenes with SHIELD were unsatisfactory, I just have to say that I have no idea _whatsoever_ how it works in that agency. So I mostly winged it there...**

**Anywho... R&amp;R! Inferno will eat all your flames, so feel free if you have to! XP**


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